For'ard of the cockpit, and gained by the simple method of stooping under the towing-beam, was the engine-room, with a coach-built roof over.
"Some engine!" declared Roche enthusiastically. "Paraffin, 60--80 horse-power too."
He opened the four compression taps, and proceeded to try to turn the starting-handle.
"My word!" he ejaculated. "She is stiff. Hasn't been used for months."
"You'll have to be careful to keep clear of that fly-wheel," cautioned Mr. Armitage. "It's awfully in the way, and should anyone get mixed up with it there'll be a fatal or very serious accident. Wonder they didn't put a guard-rail to it."
A couple of feet in front of the engine was a raised platform forming the floor of a "sunk" wheel-house. The helmsman would thus be able to see across the fore-deck, although the bows of the vessel interrupted a direct view of the surface of the water within a distance of 50 feet, which was, Mr. Armitage pointed out, a decided disadvantage when entering a lock.
"However," he added optimistically, "we'll soon get used to that."
"She is a sea-going craft after all, sir!" declared Roche triumphantly. "I thought she was."
"How do you know?" inquired Woodleigh sceptically.
"Because she has a compass. She wouldn't want one if she was designed for the Thames, would she?" replied Roche.
One by one Scoutmaster and Sea Scouts crawled through a very small doorway in the wheel-house bulkhead and gained the fo'c'sle, to which access was also obtainable by means of a fore-hatch.
"Quite spacious," commented Mr. Armitage, "and, what is equally important, dry. I see that there are four cots, so two of you will have to sleep on the side lockers in the cockpit. After all, a plank bed isn't so bad when you once get used to it. If it rains, then the fellow on the leeward berth will have to sleep in the after cabin, unless the owner doesn't sleep ashore, as I hope he will. And, by the by, it's as well that we didn't carry out Mr. Murgatroyd's suggestion and bring a tow-rope. There are some in that locker, I see. Get them out, Stratton. We're bound to want them, and we can see what we have got."
Examination showed that there were 50 fathoms of 4-inch coir rope and two 25 fathoms of 2-inch Manila.